This invention relates generally to methods and systems for conducting payment transactions, and more particularly, to methods and systems for conducting network-based electronic payment transactions in a retail establishment upon authentication of a shopper conducting the electronic payment transaction.
Known methods of shopping in retail establishments typically include collecting goods for purchase and conducting a payment transaction at a point-of-sale (POS) terminal to purchase the goods. POS terminals are electronic cash registers used for conducting payment transactions and generating receipts for the transactions. Frequently, shoppers are required to spend an undesirable amount of time waiting in long lines before purchasing goods at a POS terminal. Such long lines have been known to discourage shoppers from repeatedly visiting retail establishments and to discourage new shoppers from visiting retail establishments. Thus, long waiting times have been known to negatively affect commerce at retail establishments.
Retail establishments have been known to purchase several POS terminals for conducting many simultaneous payment transactions in an effort to facilitate reducing the time spent waiting before conducting payment transactions. However, because POS terminals are known to include expensive hardware and software, and typically are operated by a sales person, retail establishments have been known to incur substantial costs in buying, maintaining, and operating such POS terminals. Some retail establishments have also been known to provide scanning devices such that while shopping, the shoppers themselves are able to scan bar codes on goods as they are collected. After collecting and scanning the goods desired for purchase, shoppers generally spend less time at a POS terminal purchasing the goods because the goods have already been scanned. However, such shoppers still must suffer the inconvenience of waiting in line before purchasing the goods in a payment transaction. Moreover, during periods of heavy shopper traffic, long lines invariably develop at POS terminals that inconvenience shoppers who are required to wait for prolonged periods of time prior to conducting a payment transaction.